My son Stuart recently asked me who was my favorite President. My answer is Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was far from being the most intelligent man to hold that high office, but his general good sense should not be underestimated. When confronted with difficult decisions he usually made the right choice, and he surrounded himself with excellent advisors.

The two things I liked best about him were his self-deprecating sense of humor and his sunny disposition. That sunny disposition was contagious, and it seemed to lift the spirits of the entire country.

Two stories about Reagan illustrate his humor as well as his spirit of bonhomie.

While he was governor of California some reporters interrogated him after he had been overheard calling Senator X a SOB. Reagan didn’t deny it, but he explained it as follows. “Well,” he said. “we were having an inter party discussion about some legislation, and Senator Y surprised me with a remark. As we broke up, I moved around the room to Speak to Senator Y. As I did I passed by Senator X. Now, you know that Senator X and I don’t agree on anything, so as went by him I simply made a brief remark about his antercedents.”

The second story is something that took place on the campaign trail. Reagan loved to tell stories about the evils of big government. After a campaign speech a reporter approached Reagen and told him that a particular story he used to illustrate a point was wrong. It simply had not happened that way. Instead of challenging the reporter, Reagan appeared perplexed and chagrined. “You say it’s not true? Darn it, I really liked that story.”

How can you not love a man like that?